Acute
water shortage in HamirpurHamirpur, July 10Notwithstanding the arrival of the
monsoon, people of Hamirpur district have been facing an acute water
shortage for the past three months. They are being forced to fetch water
from khuds, wells and hand pumps. Reports reaching here from the
interior parts of the district say that century-old water sources have
not yet been recharged with water.

Cong to
contest HP poll on corruption issueHamirpur, July 10The vice-president of the Himachal
Pradesh Congress Committee, Ms Anita Verma, said here today that the
party would contest the forthcoming Assembly elections on the plank of
corruption and unemployment. She alleged that corruption had touched its
peak during the regime of the present government.

Villagers
block traffic over woman’s murderBilaspur, July 10Residents of Laghat village near
Barmana 17 km from here today morning blocked national highway number 21
along with body of 40-year-old woman Uma Devi of the village. They were
protesting against her alleged murder and demanding arrest of those who
killed her and sent the body in a vehicle to the village in the morning
and themselves had disappeared.

DISTRICT DIARYPlans to woo touristsKangraIn order to make travel on the
Pathankot-Jogindernagar railway section comfortable and boost tourism in
the Kangra valley, the Railways will start the Kangra Queen again.
Besides, Rs 72 lakh will be spent on the replacement and servicing of
old railway engines and the improvement of the 78 km-long railway line.
A sum of Rs 22 lakh will be spent on the line this year.

Students
upset over admissionsNurpur, July 10Admissions to the local Arya Girls
College, which was taken over by the government recently, for the new
academic session began on July 8. Students, who thronged the college
premises on Monday, for admissions were, however, disappointed to know
that the admissions began with late fee on the very first day.

Students’
body floatedDharamsala, July 10Suspended ABVP leader and former
president of the Central Students Association of the Regional Centre
Atul Bhardwaj today floated a students organisation, the Azad
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Clash on
college campus, 2 hurtShimla, July 10Tension gripped the Government College campus here following a clash between the activists of the Student Federation of India
and the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

HC notice to
Chief SecyShimla, July 10
The HP High Court today issued notices in response to a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the High Court by the president of the Consumer Protection Society, Paonta Sahib, regarding noise pollution there.

Taxi operators
call off stirManali, July 10The Himachal Taxi Operators Union and the
Autorickshaw Union here called off their three-day strike in protest against the
plying of 2 x 2, 35-seater deluxe buses on the Manali-Rohtang road.

Hamirpur, July 10
Notwithstanding the arrival of the monsoon, people of Hamirpur district have been facing an acute water shortage for the past three months. They are being forced to fetch water from khuds, wells and hand pumps.

Reports reaching here from the interior parts of the district say that century-old water sources have not yet been recharged with water. The worst affected are the government-owned supply schemes as the discharge in the reservoirs has come down by 25 per cent to 80 per cent.

Long queues can be seen in front of various hand pumps and other water sources.

The situation has taken such a turn that schoolchildren have to skip classes to fetch water. One of the students, Rajesh Kumar told this reporter that it was not possible for him to go to school after fetching water. Our family needs six pitches of water and an additional 20 for our animals daily. So, it takes a lot of time to fetch water and no study is possible,” he lamented.

Kumari Meena, a resident of Bhukker village, said the water supply position was deplorable. “I have not gone to the school for the past two months as I have to help my family fetch water,” she said.

When contacted, Mr R. N. Sharma, Superintendent Engineer of the Irrigation-cum-Public Health Department, Hamirpur admitted that there was an acute shortage of water in the district, but added that it was due to non-charging of the existing water sources.

He said the department was aware of the situation and doing its best to provide potable drinking water. The supply through 16 tankers was still going on. In all, 30 tankers had been put into service.

Mr Sharma said there were 137 lift gravity water supply schemes in the district of which 72 were short of water. In all, of a total population of 4,12,009, as many as 2,21,428 persons were still experiencing water shortage.

The department was also supplying water through hand pumps numbering 1,271. Fortyfive new hand pumps had been made operational in the district during the current season at such places where there was an acute water crisis.

Meanwhile, the situation in the town is also far from satisfactory. Those living on the first or the second floors are the worst hit. Water here is supplied on alternate days as the town has been divided into two parts.

The town needs nearly 30 lakh litres of water daily against the supply of 16 lakh litres at present. The lifting of water from the REC water supply scheme has been discontinued for the time being due to the flow of muddy water into the Beas. Residents fetch water from hand pumps.

The Irrigation-cum-Public Health Department is still to complete the Rs 20 crore augmentation programme. Though the department had earlier announced that it would be completed by August this year, at the pace at which the work is going on, there is a remote possibility of its completion on time.

Hamirpur, July 10
The vice-president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, Ms Anita Verma, said here today that the party would contest the forthcoming Assembly elections on the plank of corruption and unemployment. She alleged that corruption had touched its peak during the regime of the present government.

Talking with this correspondent, she said the party would expose the “misdeeds of the BJP” and tell people how leaders and workers of the ruling party had exploited them.

Ms Verma, who was the Parliamentary Secretary in Mr Virbhadra Singh’s government, said lakhs of educated youth had been enrolled in employment exchanges in various parts of the state but the government appeared oblivious to the matter. She warned that if no concrete plan was made to solve the problem, the day was not far when the youth would force politicians to quit.

Ms Verma denied any rift in the party and said that it was proved during the rallies addressed by Ms Sonia Gandhi at Shahpur in Kangra district and by Ms Vidya Stokes at Bhareri village in Hamirpur district last month.

She announced the Congress would hold rallies in all parts of the state. While Ms Gandhi would address rallies at Mandi and Shimla, Mr Satyajeet Rao Gaekwad, the party observer for Himachal Pradesh, would visit all districts to interact with party workers and to prepare them for the elections.

The Congress leader said that she would hold meetings of party workers of the Hamirpur and Sujanpur Tira blocks on July 13 and 14, respectively, and finalise strategy for the next elections.

Denouncing the government action for selling the shamlat land to people living in the rural areas, she said the BJP government had played a cruel joke on those who themselves were the owners of the land for which they now had to make payments.

She criticised the state government for giving one-year contract to the “vidya upasaks” and “water carriers” and said the government was playing with the career of poor people.

Bilaspur, July 10
Residents of Laghat village near Barmana 17 km from here today morning blocked national highway number 21 along with body of 40-year-old woman Uma Devi of the village. They were protesting against her alleged murder and demanding arrest of those who killed her and sent the body in a vehicle to the village in the morning and themselves had disappeared. Reports here said that earlier a driver of a utility vehicle No HP-03-4186 arrived in the village with the body of Uma Devi, mother of three and had been missing for the past one and half months, and was said to have eloped or abducted by some “powerful person of the area and a panchayat representative.

Finding Uma Devi dead, her relatives were infuriated and beat up the driver Sanjay Sharma who told them that three persons had hired his taxi for Rs 1,500 at Shimla and one of them claimed to be the “husband” of the dead woman.

He said that these three persons accompanied the body in the vehicle but as they arrived near the village, they got off the vehicle saying that they were going to arrange for her last rites asking him to carry the body to the home and they would soon follow.

But when none of them returned to the village, the villagers suspected foul play that killers had escaped. They blocked traffic and raised slogans demanding arrest of the guilty.

Villagers gave up “Pahiya Jam” only after police officers ensured action in this matter and took driver Sanjay Sharma and his vehicle into custody and
interrogated him and carried the body to Regional Hospital for a postmortem examination. The police has registered a case and investigation is on into the disappearance of Uma Devi from her family six weeks ago, and her body being sent in a vehicle today morning.

Kangra
In order to make travel on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar railway section comfortable and boost tourism in the Kangra valley, the Railways will start the Kangra Queen again.

Besides, Rs 72 lakh will be spent on the replacement and servicing of old railway engines and the improvement of the 78 km-long railway line. A sum of Rs 22 lakh will be spent on the line this year.

Mr
R. K. Singh, General Manager, Northern Railway, says the Railway Board is implementing an ambitious programme to replace and service old engines in hill states of the country which will be completed within a year.

***

A suggestion has been put forward to set up a zoo in the forest area of the Kangra Fort situated in Purana Kangra township to attract tourists and boost the economy of the area.

The suggestion has been made by the Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public Health
Minister, Mr Ramesh Dhuawala, to the state government. He gave this information at the inauguration of Trigarth- 2002 on the fort premises on June 12. He said such festivals would help preserve the Himalayan cultural heritage.

The fort, which is a major attraction for international tourists, needs to be further beautified so that more domestic tourists visit it.

The Himachal Chief Minister had announced that a musical fountain would be set up within the fort, but the Archaeological Department objected to it.

Attempts to woo tourists to the fort bore little fruit through Trigarth-2002 because of the lack of adequate publicity to the festival and mismanagement.

***

Agriculture Minister Vidaya Sagar has said that in order to make the district self-sufficient in seed production, a plan to produce 1,580 quintals of seed paddy and 1,000 quintals of seed potato has been formulated which will give a gross income of Rs 2 crore to farmers this year. To protect agricultural land from soil erosion in the Shivalik hills a Rs 6 lakh scheme has been implemented. For water conservation 136 tanks have been constructed and shallow-well irrigation schemes implemented at a cost of Rs 11.92 lakh.

Nurpur, July 10
Admissions to the local Arya Girls College, which was taken over by the government recently, for the new academic session began on July 8.

Students, who thronged the college premises on Monday, for admissions were, however, disappointed to know that the admissions began with late fee on the very first day. Secondly, Himachal Pradesh University had neither appointed any new staff nor listed the faculties to be introduced in the college. During the take-over ceremony, it was announced that commerce and arts would be introduced in the first session. However, admissions were being made only in a few subjects in the arts stream.

Mr Gaurav Mahajan, president of Nurpur unit of the NSUI, has criticised the authorities for the ambiguity regarding the admissions and has demanded that the university should finalise the list of new faculties and appoint requisite staff in the college.

Dharamsala, July 10
Suspended ABVP leader and former president of the Central Students Association of the Regional Centre Atul Bhardwaj today floated a students organisation, the Azad Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Giving details of the new organisation, Atul said it represented the aspirations of students who were apolitical and were against the misuse of students’ organisations for political ends.

Atul was president of the CSA of the Regional Centre in 2000-2001 as an ABVP nominee and was recently suspended from the membership for his attacks on leaders of the student wing of the BJP. He had levelled serious allegations of misuse of funds collected by ABVP leaders.

Harish has been appointed president of the new organisation while Arvind will be the vice-president and Prakash the general secretary. Abhishek, Mool Raj, Manoj and Sunil will be the joint secretaries. Nitin Sharma is the new secretary of the local unit.

Shimla, July 10
The HP High Court today issued notices in response to a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the High Court by the president of the Consumer Protection Society, Paonta Sahib, regarding noise pollution there.

Treating the letter as a writ petition, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice W.A. Shishak and Mr Justice Arun Goel issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Secretary, Pollution Control Board, and directed them to file replies within four weeks.

The society had alleged in the letter that the use of loudspeakers in religious places had increased noise pollution, causing inconvenience to people.

Manali, July 10
The Himachal Taxi Operators Union and the Autorickshaw Union here called off their three-day strike in protest against the plying of 2 x 2, 35-seater deluxe buses on the
Manali-Rohtang road.

According to sources, taxi-operators agreed to call off their strike at a meeting convened here yesterday in presence of Mr Chander Sen Thakur, MLA, by office-bearers of various unions.

The MLA assured them that some amicable decision would be taken within a week.